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Sunday, January 31, 2010

My 3 gals and I are tangerine lovers. It's the tangerines season now and since 2 weeks ago, we have been feasting on tangerines. Hubs has been buying a few kilograms of tangerines from the pasar malam every week. Baby who does not fancy eating fruits is absolutly crazy over those sweet tangerines.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

This is the type of mushrooms that I use. You can use any type of fresh mushrooms.

Once the pot of water is boiling, pour in the mushroom soup powder mix. I use Campbell's mushroom soup powder in sachet form. It's MSG-free. Stir well. Then dump all the shiitake mushrooms and fish into the pot. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. Add in 1-2 slices of cheese for a more cheesy taste (optional). When it's cooked, pour in the macaroni and mix well.

The macaroni / pasta / spaghetti can be cooked separately in another pot.

Once cooled down, store in small air-tight containers for deep freezing. These will be for Baby. Most of the time, rascal #2 will pinch 1/4 of it from her baby sister!

Friday, January 29, 2010

If she sleeps after 10pm, she will be struggling to keep herself awake when I wake her up at 6am sharp in the morning.

Yesterday morning, we were down at the lobby 5 minutes late and the transporter wasn't too happy. Alycia was ready but rascal #2 woke up at 6am, started to whine and fuss and scream and woke Baby up at 6am too. When the other 2 monkeys wake up at the same time, things will go hay wire. I told my maid that from tomorrow onwards, she and me, we must wake up at 5:45am and wake Alycia up before 6am. It's really bad to keep the driver waiting, though we have to pay her RM180 a month.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

I have to put this in record here as this blog is a journal for my 3 gals. For those of you who have read this in Facebook, have another laugh again.

About a month ago, I brought Baby and rascal #2 to the paed's office for their vaccinations. Rascal #2 may look tough, daring and bold, but she is a real scardy cat when it comes to needles. When it was her turn to be poked in the butt, she clung on to daddy like a koala bear.... her front was facing daddy's front with her 2 legs clawed round daddy's fat fat belly... and 2 joker nurses went behind daddy, brought out a, a, a.... RATTLE (meant for infants!!!) and started to shake the rattle. OMG, as I am typing this, I am chukling to myself again. Each time I think of the 2 damn farny nurses, I will chuckle again. For Pete's sake, Sherilyn is 5 years old lar, not 5 months old lar, even Baby wouldn't be distracted by the rattle lar, ROTL. And you know, the 2 damn farny nurses were so serious when they shoke the rattle, a face devoid of a smile... as if they were robots. I know, they do this thousands of times in a day, but, but, aiyoh, come on, look at the child first (to see how old she/he is) before fishing the rattle out and shaking it and SMILE please or make some funny faces. I had a real good hearty laugh at the nurses in the clinic. I just could not help but burst out laughing real loud when I saw the nurses shaking the rattle in front of Sherilyn MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

I really don't know what Alycia was thinking - wearing a hooded sweater to bed one night. For someone who can't stand heat, she wore this thick sweater to bed, with a blanky covering her body too! I think she loves this Disney Peter Pan sweater too much!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

When Baby saw ko-koong (she calles my dad ko-koong) eating nasi lemak last week, she screamed "I wan peeeeash!". My mum then gave her a wee bit of the rice. After tasting it, she wanted more...

... and after a few rounds of the rice (which had a little sambal), she kept sticking out her tongue... and touched her tongue, in response to the stinging sensation on it. Her eyes turned red and watery and then she shoke her head and said "do wan". Haha, that's how we made her gulp down her water + supplements!

Monday, January 25, 2010

I will wake up at 5:45am every morning, then wake Alycia up at 6am. She drinks a glass of fresh milk painfully (she tells me that she hates to drink milk or anything in the morning) while half asleep on the chair. Then I keep nagging her to hurry up coz we have to be at the lobby to wait for the transporter to pick her up before 7am.

After Alycia leaves for school, I either jog round the neighborhood, work out at the gym or have a dip in the pool. Once I'm home, I wake rascal #2 up and nag her non-stop to hurry up. She's the world's #1 Miss Dilly Dally and Miss No Urgency. If I am not around in the bathroom to supervise her, she will count her hair in the bathroom, play with the goggles that I hang in the bathroom, play with soap, play with toilet papers, play with water, good Lord knows what else she does. She will be late for school, unless I threaten her with the cane. She whines and cries on most mornings and I go through the throes of getting her to drink milk, wash up and dress up every morning on end.

Me leaving the house in the wee hours of the morning with Alycia. Then I went swimming and swam 25 laps. Could have swam longer but as always, time is always not on my side.

My poor baby is so very deprieved of sleep ever since she started attending P1. Shall blog about this in my next post.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

My 3 gals, especially Baby love pasta and spaghetti with bolognaise sauce. I normally use minced beef, pork or fish. I cook this dish for them at least once or twice a week. Last week, I used fish, shiitake mushrooms, big onions, tomatoes and celery to cook with the bolognaise sauce.

Here's my sauce and all the ingredients in the non-stick pan.

This is how the sauce looks like once the cooking is done.

I boiled 2 types of pastas - one is fettuccine for the 2 older gals and one is Heinz alphabet and number pasta for Baby. When the pasta is cooked al dente, I poured the sauce over and mixed everything well. I sprinkled some Parmesan grated cheese for the 2 older gals. No cheese for Baby coz I find it contains too much sodium for a tiny toddler.

This bowl is for the older gal.

This bowl is Baby's pasta and carrots before the sauce is added. I boiled the pasta and diced carrots together. With the carrots, the pasta would taste very sweet. Baby is a carrot lover and sometimes when she has no appetite to eat anything, she will survive on soup and carrots alone.

After mixing the sauce to the pasta and once cooled down, I transferred the pasta into small air-tight Tupperware containers for deep-freezing.

On another note, after a day's outing at Times Square yesterday, rascal #2 had continuous vomiting. Find out what happened at my health blog.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

We have homecooked fried vermicelli at least once or twice a week. My 3 gals do not seem to get fed up with fried vermicelli, so do I. Preparation is easy, cooking time is short and I can cook large portions enough for lunch and dinner and even for deep freezing. On days when I don't have the time to cook, all I need to do to put piping hot and tasty food on the dining table is to reheat the fried mee hoon.

Friday, January 22, 2010

... in front of the idiot box. Baby has her breakfast seated in front of the idiot box every morning. Some people say it's really bad to eat in front of the TV. Ya know, if I don't do that, this fler won't drink her formula milk or her supplements. She's already under weight and I'm having a very tough and stressful time getting her to drink formula milk. Anyway, I think it's not that bad as Baby is picking up tons of nursery rhymes and general knowledge from the TV. She can now 'sing' many nursery rhymes and Barney songs and can even dance when she hears the songs.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Hubs brought us to Mid Valley for dinner and shopping one evening last week. It was an eleventh hour decision to go to Mid Valley. We had dinner at Canton-I @ Gardens again, hubs favorite Chinese restaurant. After dinner, I bought Alycia a pair of school shoes as spare. While I shopped, hubs brought the gals to the indoor theme park. Alycia and Sherilyn had been to the theme park umpteen times but it was Baby's first ever visit to the theme park. Needless to say, Baby was beaming with joy, excitement and amusement.

Riding on the rocking car with Alycia jie jie.

First ever ride on the carousel. Baby was a picture of excitement and fright, all in one facial expression. Cute!

On school-going days, Alycia and Sherilyn hardly have the time to eat fruits. I normally make them freshly squeezed orange juice (an orange for each of them every other day), which they will drink before they eat their lunch, upon their return from school. On weekends, they will eat fruits half an hour after drinking milk in the morning. I believe that fruits should be taken on an empty stomach and not together or immediately after food. Alycia has no problem eating fruits, she's a food lover anyway. For Sherilyn, it's tough job to get her to eat anything, except for junkies! And unless it's fruits that she really loves like these:

Jackfruits, strawberries and mini mandarin oranges (sweet tangerines) and her all-time favorite durian! Try giving her an apple, a pear or an orange and she'll take forever to finish them. Most of the time, she doesn't finish her fruits, unless they are in juice form, this lazy girl, sigh....

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Alycia is settling fairly well into her new routine ever since she started Primary 1. She has no problem waking up at 5:50am every morning, gets ready for school by herself (drinks milk, brushes teeth, washes up, dresses up, combs hair, wears socks and shoes, all by herself), in time to be picked up by the transporter by 6:40am. By the time she comes home from school at around 2pm, has a protracted lunch (this fler loves eating and spends at least an hour enjoying her lunch and then dessert + junk food), takes a shower and takes a nap without being told. Sometimes when she's in a playful mood, she will skip her nap and if this happens, she will be drop dead jaded and sleepy.

Last week, she skipped her afternoon nap and this was what happened during dinner:

For once, she slept on the chair while eating LOL!! I had to pull her up, urged her to shower and then she plopped onto her bed at 9pm and slept all the way until 6:50 the next morning!

Rascal #2 loves eating with chopsticks and mind you, she does not like to use kids' chopsticks but my mil's wooden chopsticks which are quite pointed at the front. This rascal also loves to play with the chopsticks... digging her teeth with the chopsticks, running around with the chopsticks and she has a habit of kneeling on the chair when she eats. I have always been worried whenever she uses a pair of chopsticks to eat coz the problem with her is that she NEVER sits still when she eats. She takes 2-3 hours to finish each meal and no amount of coaxing and caning will deter her from repeating her habit. Sometimes she fights with Alycia during meal times.

Last week, there was an article in the newspapers that reported a 3-year old boy from China who had a chopstick stuck to his nostril while he was playing, which went into his brain. It was a freak accident and thank God the boy survived. I showed the picture to Alycia and Sherilyn, exaggerated a wee bit on the story to scare them in the hope of deterring them from playing with chopsticks. It worked. I scared them out of their wits. I even threatened rascal #2 that I will stick the picture on the kitchen cabinet so that she will not play with chopsticks again. Alycia was quick to help me cut out the article and stuck it on the kitchen cabinet, hahahahahahaha.... Since that day, none of them dared touch the chopsticks again. I will allow rascal #2 use chopsticks to eat again when she's more matured in her thoughts and outgrows all her mischief.

Monday, January 18, 2010

After collecting the soft toy redemption stamps from Guardian Pharmacy for over 2 months, we finally filled up the card with stamps. For every RM10 spent, a stamp would be issued. Each time we shopped at Guardian, my gals would be eyeing and touching the redemption soft toys at the counter. They would be telling me that wanted the elephant. Last week after dropping Sherilyn off for ballet class, we had 2 rounds of shopping sprees at Guardian Pharmacy and finally filled the Guardian Pharmacy card with stamps. We must thank the gals' 2 godfathers for contributing some of the stamps. We also have to thank a stranger who gave his stamps to us when he saw my gals going gaga over the soft toys at the Guardian Pharmacy counter several weeks ago.

Since the elephant was out of stock, my gals had to settle for a cute giraffe. The quality of the soft toy is very good.

Guess who liked the giraffe the most and has been hogging it?

And guess who was the one who had been diligently collecting the stamps from Guardian? Me, daddy, Alycia or Sherilyn?

Sunday, January 17, 2010

I have never really liked vegetarian food as I find most vegetarian food laden with MSG, high in white flour, starch and oil. There is no meat or garlic to make the food taste good, so obviously the chef relies on a lot on MSG and seasoning.

On hubs' recent birthday (end December), he suggested having vegetarian food. So we went to this vegetarian restaurant at Taman Danau Desa called Fan Cai Xiang for vegetarian food. I was a tad apprenhensive having vegetarian food as I hate the aftermath - the burning desire to drink water from thirst. After eating at this restaurant, I was really amazed and impressed with the food. The dishes were super low on MSG. Some dishes were free from MSG. You will know that the food was very low on MSG coz the food was not salty, not oily, tasted like homecooked and did not leave me running to the kitchen to gulp down glasses of water. I will definitely patronize this restaurant again.

My hubby's all-time favorite restaurant in Ipoh is Pusing Public Seafood Restaurant or commonly called Mun Choong by Ipohites. The main reason why he loves going to Mun Choong is because of the kon cheen har loke (fried prawns). This prawn dish is a sure-order dish by almost everyone who goes to this restaurant. If you don't pre-order, you won't even get to savour this dish.

This restaurant is always packed. The only thing I hate about this restaurant is the waiting time. We waited almost an hour before the first dish was served. Everybody's tummy was growling away and we were really famished when the first dish arrived.

This signature fried noodles was our first dish. It was really tasty and it was whacked within minutes.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

I have never in my life used wrinkle cream. But I think I may have to start using them very soon. Age is catching up with me. I no longer have smooth and supple skin. Instead my skin is terribly dry, especially on my hands and legs. Fine lines and crow’s feet have started to appear on my face and corner of my eyes. Gosh, I hope I won’t have sagging skin and skin pigmentation too! These usually come together in your BIG 4 birthday package!

Eczema runs in my family. I have it and so do my 3 daughters. My younger brother had it too when he was a child. Till today, my skin is still on the dry side. My skin was terribly dry and peeling too during my pregnancies and was especially bad during my 3rd pregnancy. With eczema, the key is to keep the skin moisturized at all times, to prevent a bad eczema outbreak.

In a few months’ time, I will turn 37 years old. I can’t believe that the BIG 4 is just 3 years away. I wonder how I will look like and what I’ll be doing when I turn 40. I wonder if I will still have my youthful looks or have to resort to the best wrinkle cream to remove the inevitable wrinkles from forming on my face. Oh well, whatever it is, my one big wish is to have good health – for me and for my loved ones.

Do you have any good weight loss stories to share? I have my very own weight loss story too. If I had the time, I can write a book on it. It all started 10 years ago when I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). One of the many symptoms is unexplained weight gain. I did my own research by poring the internet and with lots of sacrifices and struggles, managed to lose 5kg. Till today, I am still practicing the regimen that I practiced during the height of my PCOS days.

When we were back in Ipoh last month, my dad treated us to a sumptuous dinner at the newly opened Hoi Seng Restaurant located at Ipoh Garden.

Here's what we had:

Shanghai Special Pork Ribs with man tau - very delish!

Signature Tofu Dish - super smooth and tasty!

Phoon Choy (Hong Kong Special Veggie Pot)

Steamed fish.

Crispy chicken stuffed with fish paste - great hit with the kids especially the deep fried noodles accompanying the chicken.

Some of the popular dishes served at Hoi Seng Restaurant Ipoh.

This trip to Ipoh is all about eating. Thankfully I did not gain a pound and don't have to resort to phentermine, phew! That's why I always say, EXERCISE and cut down on your carb intake!

For 7 adults and 2 kids, the bill came up to RM225.80, which is quite reasonable as this restaurant is quite posh and the food that we ordered all tasted good. There will definitely be a second trip to this restaurant again.

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Health Freak Mommy

Health Freak Mommy has been writing advertorials - both local and international since April 2007. HFM writes reviews and advertorials on products, restaurants and food. If you need to place an advertorial in this blog, please email Shireen at shireenyong@gmail.com.